Latin America IT Services:
Region on the Rise

Market maturity can turn into revenue stagnation even in the best of times. This reality pushed large multinational telecommunications companies and IT solution providers to look beyond their traditional borders to tap emerging markets for new business years ago. If anything, the current global economic crisis only reinforces the need for providers to find new sources of growth. The Latin America market is a particularly attractive target. The region is undergoing an economic renaissance initiated by countries with diversified industrial economies and young populations that are embracing global markets. As this advance occurs, businesses in the region need technology to facilitate better communications, automate operations and increase productivity.

These elements are all front and center in the economic leaders in the region, including: Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. Their growth, along with other important regional players, has contributed to a surge in the trade of goods and services as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). This key statistic has almost tripled over the past quarter century for the entire region, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

With this macroeconomic backdrop, we are seeing intense interest from a range of providers to tap into this market space with a broad swath of managed IT services that include application services, unified communications and collaboration services, security, and both traditional dedicated hosting and on-demand computing.

This report, part of an ongoing series looking at managed IT services markets in various geographies, will examine how some of the top global IT services providers are making inroads in Latin America. The report will discuss how they are applying their individual strengths to expand their reach in the region, and what challenges lie ahead in this promising if often volatile market.